Browser-based mail converter embeds remote images in PDFs, flagging blocked ones honestly
A developer added a save-as-PDF feature to a browser mail viewer that processes everything locally using a Web Worker and pdf-lib. Images embedded in the message were straightforward to include, but remotely linked images raised privacy and technical challenges. To avoid tracking, requests omit cookies and referrer data, skip tiny tracking pixels, and refuse private-network addresses. Because many image hosts do not allow cross-origin reads, some pictures cannot be fetched, so the PDF shows labeled placeholder boxes explaining the reason instead of blank gaps. A sample of popular hosts found that roughly two-thirds sent the needed CORS header, indicating that many newsletter images cannot be embedded client-side.
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